Following the dream…

One week ago today was Thanksgiving. What? It’s over, it’s been over, and I’ve just started to come out of my turkey coma. I gave the whole kitchen a good scrub down yesterday, put all the baking supplies back (after sorting them and throwing out some really old rice flour- not sure what that was all about…) and cleaned out the fridge. Last night we had a really lovely- albeit sleepy- grocery run in the dark (gotta love Daylight Savings. Dark at 5:30 in the afternoon. Really?). I love a good supply run, don’t you? Fresh veggies and fruits (the Cuties are in! Yaay Cuties!), some lean meats, and I’ve officially begun laying in the chocolate supply for all my Winter Tide baking. I’ve gone with Ghirardelli morsels this year- I’ve missed them so! After a few years of going with Nestlé's and Tollhouse, I really needed some good chocolate in the house!

I’ve slowly been bringing Christmas, Yule and Winter Tide treasures home for a few weeks now: a glass Polar, some polka-dot candy papers, a gnome ornament and a blown glass golden tiger one, too. (Been messing about with recreating that, too- looks good! I’ll post pictures soon.) The Cricut Paper Cutting machine has seen some use, too- lots of prancing ponies, sleighs, red cardinals and foxes are dancing around my idea boards right now. And yesterday I tried out a new cookie recipe- Snickerdoodles! I can’t believe I’ve never made them before- they are really good, with the outside all crunchy from a sugar coating, and the inside all soft and cakey. It made the house smell like Disneyland for a while, too!

Which brings us to a fork in the road. On the one hand , I want to talk about our trip to Disneyland last week, and on the other I have a bit of an essay on the worth of good tools. Which to choose? Let’s do this- I’ll give a brief synopsis of both! Okay, fair warning, this could get long…

So, Disneyland! It’s become a cherished tradition for us to make a trip to the Fair Kingdom on Black Friday. It’s consumerism yes, but of the loveliest sort! We don’t buy much- in fact, it’s become another tradition to pick out a small ornament from the shops on Main Street just before we leave to mark the occasion. Last year I picked TinkerBell, and thought I would just find her in another pose, but at the last second a sparkly little Alice (from Wonderland, you know?) caught my eye. The girls are now ensconced on my jewelry holder, discussing tea and the delights of Christmas baking. So pretty! I’ll post a proper discussion of our trip next week- that’ll be worth a full week of posts at least!

Now, let’s talk about tools, shall we? I picked up a cookie dough scoop to try out this month, mainly because I like to make mostly drop cookies during the year, and for Christmas this year I wanted a more “professional” look to my baking. I looked at a few places, choked over some of the prices (and sizes- I mean really! who needs a half cup measure for cookies?) and decided to get a really cheap, plastic model from the craft store.

Don’t do it! Just walk away! Back away from the cheap stuff, and no cookies will get hurt.

Really, truly- you get what you pay for when you are investing in tools! I will never understand why I think I can get away with buying cheap (I’m talking less than $3) plastic tools. Encarta defines a tool as:

“ an object designed to do a specific kind of work such as cutting or chopping by directing manually applied force or by means of a motor”.

If it’s designed to do a “specific” job, why would I think that just any old plastic thingamajig would do the job? Well, this brings me to the point of this whole essay: I am designed to do a specific, particular job. and at this point in time, that job is doing what I’m doing right now, what I’ve been training to do for the last 7 years! Why would I let myself fall prey to peer pressure and think that I’m not doing “my job”? I lost my way this year, and started thinking that I was spending too much time playing around while my husband did the “real” work.

What?!

Just because I don’t bring in a paycheck, I began to think that my work wasn’t “real”. Well, that’s just silly! Because my work is just as real as any one else's! In fact, I would have to pay someone else a lot of money to do what I do. And that would just defeat the purpose. I am searching for a way to make a living doing what I do, but the path I almost set out on this year is not the way I want to accomplish that. And not to put too fine a point on it, but noone else can do the stuff I can: I taught myself how to knit, and sew, paint, quilt, crochet, bake, cook, write (! I’m most proud of that I think. It’s a lot of work writing all these blog posts, but it has taught me so much about writing, and I’ve gotten tons of practice, and practice makes perfect, right?) and garden in the last 7 years! On top of all that skill, I’ve spent the last 11 years battling some pretty serious health issues. I don't know anyone else who was given a Menopause diagnosis at the age of 30! And that’s just the tip of my personal iceberg…

So don’t skimp on the right tools. Sometimes it’s a good idea to search for ways to make one tool do several jobs, but it can’t even do it’s own job if it’s not tempered and built correctly. And sometimes that means spending some real money to get the best choice.

And sometimes, the best tool is the one you’ve had all along!

On time, and the ever expanding deadline. . .

It’s Leap Year, the last day of February- and I’ve run out of time. I didn’t have enough time yesterday to write a blog post- heck, I was too busy to even turn the computer on! Although, I am secretly proud of myself for that. Normally I am too busy to cook, clean, sew, read, brush the cat, et., etc., because of spending too much time on the computer. Yesterday was different. Today is, too- mainly because I’m letting go of a few things. Expectations, deadlines, I-have-to’s. Leap Year has taught me to cherish time again. It isn’t that there is more of it- there is, this year. But I haven’t been using it carefully enough lately. I keep finding myself lamenting the lack of a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. There are too many item’s left unchecked on my weekly to-do list for my piece of mind.

What to do when that happens- what to do. Well, I just happened to let some things go- and it worked. Voila! A sense of accomplishment- because I did the one thing I set out to do yesterday. Now, I know that won’t work every time- you can’t just not do what needs to get done. But sometimes, you can change your mind.

Sometimes, it’s better to just. . . let it go.

How to make a house a home

Reflecting on life this morning while the skies get ready to open up here in not so sunny California. It’s a drizzly day, and the clouds are blocking my view of the mountain so I’m looking through my file for inspiration while I continue to work on my lists. We have come to understand that life doesn’t just happen- it takes a lot of hard work, and planning, compromise and honesty.

But you know what helps? Making lists. Or rather- having a plan, which entails making lists of all the things you have, all the things you want to have, and all the different ways of getting those things. For example:

I used to dream of having a garden- not just any garden, but acres of tilled soil, with orchards and fields and. . . well. Maybe someday- it is a nice dream, after all. But we work in an expensive city, and we live in an apartment. But we hit the jackpot with this one, in one regard:

See all that light out there? We did not have that where we used to live. And now that space looks like this:

Seven short months later, and it’s not even spring yet! So- make those lists, and dream as big as you can. Then take a look at where you are, and do what you can. Be honest with yourself- I cannot take care of an entire farm by myself while my husband is at work being a school teacher. But I took a good long hard look at that dream, and I was able to see the spirit of that wishful fantasy. Plants! And light, and a place for my Tasha to play, hunt, learn and grow. And you know what? It’s making everyone in our little family happy, not just me. So I am able to share my dream, instead of locking it away behind bitterness, disappointment and regret. And isn’t that the important part of it all?

Live your dream.

Who's driving this thing?

September 2011

     I turned around and suddenly summer is almost over! I love Autumn; so October,  pumpkins and cool weather can't come fast enough this year! We need a little sweater cuddlin’ around here; this year has been a tough one for us.

     So I’m back in front of the computer making my lists this morning, attempting to put a little order back into our lives. Autumn is the beginning of the new  year at our house; with a teacher in the family it’s easier to reset both our calendars at the same time. With the last rays of the summer sun just around the corner, I like to spend these last few days setting up a new schedule of things to do, places to go, chores to do during the week, projects I want to finish off, and what to get started on. Since it’s all on down on paper anyway, I thought I’d outline them here, so you could all see what my days are like this time of year.

     My workweek is Monday thru Friday. I like to get the bulk of my chores and work done by Friday afternoon, so that the mister and I can play all weekend long! He also spends quite a bit of time in the evenings doing paperwork, and likes to help out when he can on the weekends, so I leave some of the bigger chores for Sunday afternoon. Here’s a little glimpse of my weekly schedule:

•    Monday is laundry and cooking day: this way I have clean clothes for the week, and most of the work for the meals of the week is taken care of, too.
•    Tuesday is my day off. I mainly play computer games on this day, or try out ideas for my “day job”. It’s nice to have one whole day set aside for playing with ideas, without chores eating up what little time I have for crafting.
•  Wednesday is washing day. I’ll wash the floors, windows, mirrors, any dishes that have built up (nope- hubby does the dishes. It’s in my contract! I cook, he cleans ) and finish off any special request laundry that turns up. I also wash down light switches, phone mouthpieces, doorknobs, etc. it helps keep the germs away, and keeps me aware of the general state of the house. It’s all in the details! And it only takes a few minutes.
• Thursday is for meal planning. I learned this just a few years ago, and it is amazing how much every other part of my routine has become easier once I started doing this. I should do a longer post just on this topic later on to save some space here since this is getting long. It’s easy, fun (for me- I like to read cookbooks) and saves me a ton of money. Ahem. If I can get it done, which is one reason why summer vacation worked so smoothly last year, but not this one. . .
• Friday is catch-up day. I do one last load of laundry on Friday, mostly towels for the weekend, finish any sewing projects, make sure my chores are finished for the week, that sort of thing.

     Oh, and now for my secret- I only work on housework 15 minutes at a time. Yup. And most things don’t even take that long- set a timer and see for yourself. I play music when I clean, too. Make your chores a workout, and get twice the benefit!

     And you know what? It works for my husband and me- so much so, that when I got off the weekly rotation when we moved this summer, it took us both three months to get our schedules back on track!

     I have found that there are not that many people who like the idea of a strict schedule when it comes to housework and most would rather just hire a maid and ignore the whole thing. But that’s just not me- I actually like running this ship! And I’ve found that having a written schedule, lists, and a plan to follow makes it easier for me to run my household with efficiency and grace. Now granted, it’s taken me 16 years of marriage to get to this point, so I’m not saying it’s easy; and it takes a little elbow grease to get this train rolling at the start, but in the end we think it’s been really worth the effort.  I’ve cobbled my system together from several different sources, and I certainly couldn’t do it if my husband weren’t on board with me on this crazy ride. 

Blackboards and Blackouts

     We had a bit of a problem in southern California this past week- a massive blackout that affected most of the county! It was...interesting, to say the least. I will say that mother nature is certainly having her say this year! Also, the school year has started back up with a roar this time around and we are missing a mast or two on this schooner, so it's time to get her back into working trim. Our regularly scheduled posts will continue in a few days, once I've gotten a handle on this crazy ride.

A change in the wind

So, I am at a crossroads of sorts with this bog. Just fourteen posts this summer, this year. I am worried that it has been too...fluffy. Too whimsical. I thought seriously of making a new blog, or of changing the name of this one. But, then this happened -

Can you see it? A clear sign. A Fork In The Road. It's hidden a little by clouds of indecision and doubt, but Oh- it's there all right. The right goes down, into obscurity and brambles. The left goes up, towards the clear blue sky. And so, a Change will be coming to Magickwyrds. A little less fluff, and a bit more real. Day to day life has its challenges, and they deserve their day in the sun.